“You know what everyone’s saying,” said Teresita Alvarez, 63, as she walked to the polling station with her daughter and granddaughter.

“He [Petro] could bring Colombia down – he could make it like Venezuela. No one here wants that.”

Strangely, both Teresita and her 36-year-old daughter, Liliana, who have always lived in La Sierra, voted for centrist Sergio Fajado the first time round. Their second vote was a massive swing to the right.

Builder Alex Gutierrez, 40, picked Duque for the same reasons.

“We’ve seen the problems with Venezuela. We don’t want to risk that happening here,” he said.

La Sierra

The Democratic Centre has used its campaign to paint Petro as another Maduro, saying he would mismanage the economy if he ever got into power and bring the country down to its knees like its Andean neighbor.